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California State University
Harold Goldwhite
To the Editor:
In "Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't" in the July-August issue, Renny Christopher paints a black-and-white picture of the relationship between the publicly supported four-year higher education systems in California: the California State University and the University of California. I prefer shades of gray.
Overall figures for the amount of money spent on each student in the two systems are hard to interpret given UC's mission, which includes doctoral and professional education. In my own discipline, chemistry, I see lecture classes in beginning chemistry courses of several hundreds at UC, followed by smaller laboratory sections taught by unfledged graduate assistants. At CSU, in contrast, I see far smaller lecture classes in these courses taught by our best faculty, and laboratories led by those same faculty together with long-serving and experienced adjunct faculty. I see undergraduates, often at the first-year and sophomore levels, involved in collaborative research with faculty. I see them working in well-equipped laboratories and using current instrumentation. By the time they graduate, these students frequently have publications in recognized journals. They go on to employment, or distinguished graduate and professional schools, where they perform with distinction. It is clear what I think of the quality of education in my discipline at CSU regardless of any perceived class differentiation between the two systems.
Students in many disciplines benefit from their CSU educations to become socially mobile. The master plan for higher education in California has worked well. Its achievements are, regrettably, threatened in the short term by the fiscal crisis in the state. But in the long run, I believe that CSU will continue to serve its students and the citizens of California admirably.
Harold Goldwhite
(Chemistry)
California State University, Los Angeles
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